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Dion Phaneuf is the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs and has eight NHL seasons and 600 regular-season games on his resume.

But he’s still a kid at heart.

Phaneuf was having had as much fun as anybody else while playing ball hockey for a practice at the Team Canada Olympic team orientation camp Monday at Calgary’s Markin MacPhail Centre, where off-ice activities are limited due to the onerous insurance costs it would cost for all those stars to put on the blades.

“I haven’t played in a while, but it was fun to be out here,” Phaneuf said after Monday’s session.

“Every kid grows up playing ball hockey, and then to come and be able to play with all these great players. It was fun.

“The main thing was getting the information and being able to run through a lot of the system stuff so that when the time comes, it’s fresh in everyone’s mind.

“I thought it was a good day, but the ball hockey skills were a little rusty.”

The bigger test will be whether Phaneuf’s on-ice skills will be enough to earn him a spot on the team which will represent Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in February in Sochi, Russia.

Four years ago, Phaneuf was a rising star for the Calgary Flames and scored an invite to the orientation camp on the eve of the season.

However, it turned into a horrible season for him and the Flames, and he was traded to the Maple Leafs on the eve of the Olympics. He didn’t claim a spot on the squad which went on to win gold at the ’10 Games in Vancouver.

Phaneuf insists he’s a completely different player and person from those days.

“With age and experience of playing more hockey, I think you learn a lot,” said Phaneuf, who married actress Elisha Cuthbert last month. “I feel like I’ve worked on a lot of things.

“I remember when I first started, the older guys would be like, ‘You’ve gotta enjoy it because it goes by real fast.’ I don’t know if you actually take that in when you’re that age, because I’m in my ninth year, and it’s flown by. I’ve definitely grown as a player and as a person from when I was (in Calgary). And that’s a while ago. I enjoyed my time here. I played on a lot of good teams with a lot of good teammates, but I’ve definitely grown over that time period from the trade.”

Time will tell whether Phaneuf has evolved his game enough to be part of the ’14 Olympic team.

Canada has a plethora of defencemen vying for the eight roster spots, including five holdovers from the ’10 team, but there are openings.

Phaneuf, who has played at three world championship tournaments and was a key cog to the dominating ’05 gold-medal winning world junior squad, is optimistic he can earn a spot with a strong start to the NHL season.

“The bottom line is the guys that are playing the best for the first three months or the start of the season, those are the guys that are going to go over (to Sochi), so you want to get off to a good start with your club team,” said the Edmonton native. “First and foremost, I’m focused on playing well for our team in Toronto. You’ve got to start well because the guys that are playing the best at that point in time in the season are the guys that are going to be going over. Right now, my focus is starting well, but you’ve got to be focused on your team first and foremost and play your game and give yourself the best opportunity by playing well.”

It could help his cause if the Maple Leafs appear to have improved as much as they first appear after an off-season during which they’ve added forwards David Clarkson and David Bolland and goaltender Jonathan Bernier.

“We’ve really taken some steps in the right direction as a team, and last year, we played some really good hockey — but that’s a building block,” Phaneuf said. “We know there’s lots of work to be done. We’re not happy with just making the playoffs and losing in the first round. We want to win, and I really like the moves that we made this year.

“We added some guys that have a lot of experience, some veteran guys that are really going to help our team. I’m excited about training camp as is every guy starting a new year, but I’m looking forward to getting back and getting started.”

As Advertised in the Calgary SUN

Dion Phaneuf enjoying being back in Olympic fold

Dion Phaneuf is the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs and has eight NHL seasons and 600 regular-season games on his resume.

But he’s still a kid at heart.

Phaneuf was having had as much fun as anybody else while playing ball hockey for a practice at the Team Canada Olympic team orientation camp Monday at Calgary’s Markin MacPhail Centre, where off-ice activities are limited due to the onerous insurance costs it would cost for all those stars to put on the blades.

“I haven’t played in a while, but it was fun to be out here,” Phaneuf said after Monday’s session.

“Every kid grows up playing ball hockey, and then to come and be able to play with all these great players. It was fun.

“The main thing was getting the information and being able to run through a lot of the system stuff so that when the time comes, it’s fresh in everyone’s mind.

“I thought it was a good day, but the ball hockey skills were a little rusty.”